Image courtesy of NASA

US federal space agency NASA has postponed issuing solicitation for vendor bids on major data center consolidation and outsourcing project, citing leadership changes and new requirements by the federal budget office.

NASA announced that a plan was in the works to overhaul its entire data center infrastructure last year. It was part of a larger plan to overhaul networks the agency uses, the way it procures and delivers IT services, as well as its communication networks. The original plan is expected to be changed significantly.

The new Office of Management and Budget requirements cited by NASA include policies regarding cloud computing, greening of IT, virtualization and federal data center consolidation.

Requests for proposals for four of the five projects that make up NASA's IT Infrastructure Integration Program have already been issued. Data center consolidation is the only remaining one.

In the announcement of the delay in issuing RFP for the contract, agency staff explained that NASA had reexamined its acquisition strategy for the project and decided it "did not fully address future NASA enterprise requirements."

The future revised plan will incorporate all of the agency's data centers and will "allow NASA to design an infrastructure strategy to address all business requirements, while taking advantage of opportunities to reduce energy costs and utilize innovations like cloud computing." It will include modernization of facilities and use of data center outsourcing services.

Twenty companies have expressed interest in bidding on the project. They include construction, electrical, architecture and engineering firms.